[Mrs Nicholls]

Hi everyone, hope you are all busy, but not too busy to share your views with me.

we have an office cleaning contract and they are always on our back, changing roats of jobs and not giving enough time for jobs and now they are talking about written warnings etc, they are basically treating us like employees when we are obviously independant contractors. is the approach they are taking allowed? surely they are not in a position to be high and mighty and dish out these things and basically treat us like employees.
anyone know where we stand???

[Mrs Nicholls]

no one had this happen to them? maybe we are being soft and letting the company we clean for walk all over us.

Got a meeting with them monday evening, need to shoot them down a bit with some facts.

[martin19842]

hi there,

you need to sit down with the client, and review the services being provided by you to the client.

pointing out your concerns to them in the fact that there changes are compromising the service that you are able to provide.

we would always confront a client about this sort of thing, and seek a review meeting to sort out the issues.  it may well be that with the changes that they are making, then a price review is required, as the client is varying the contract.

i do hope that you have a specification that states that cleaning will take place between this time and that time.  if so then you can take a strong position on this. stating that you quoted for xxx when in fact the client wants yyy

regards

martin

[Mrs Nicholls]

Hi
We have a rota which they changed a few times and we agreed to try it. Although they keep adding to it and changing it anyway. Is it up to us and not the client to provide a rota of what we will do, or is it them? We have set hours per visit but the time isn't enough and we usually stay far over and beyond what we should just to get the work completed. They won't budge on the cleaning hours.
This disaplinary stuff doesn't apply to contractors does it? They have gone about it the wrong way anyway, written before a verbal. We haven't even had a written so I don't know why they said it. They are tryin to tell us how to work and even come up with their own colour code system when I asked why staff weren't using appropriate materials, surely that would have been up to us even though they supply cleaning stuff?

[Sarah S & P Cleaning]

Hi,

I dont think i could tolerate their behaviour, you are the contractor and whilst its fine to negotiate on times, work, hours etc they have no right to tell you what to do, hoe to do it or even mention warnings.

I would definately call a meeting and explain what their responsibilities are and what yours are, explain what you are able to manage to do realistically with the time they have given you and stick to your guns, dont back down.

If you get nowhere then you never will and it could just get worse over time.
Give them notice if you have to and tell them to stick it, even if they get another contractor then fine let them have the problem and save yourself some stress.

Sarah x

[DP]

Most things like this are happening, because you are allowing them to happen. Its a tough understanding and one that we have had to face more then once. The main thing is do not allow it to become personal.

Its ok for them to change the spec, providing its still do-able within the allowed time frame and cost. However if it does begin to exceed this then its up to you to bring it to their attention, unless you do, there is no issue.

They can dictate certain criteria (within reason) as they may become or remain ultimately responsible in the event of an incident. Additionally they do have some say in procuring the best value, i.e. stopping someone sweeping the same area of floor 4 times in a shift for no reason etc etc.

There is no such issue as disciplinary for contractors unless you have agreed to this process within your contract, I suspect they are playing with either yours or their ignorance.

If you have no agreed  procedure in respect of how to relay complaints to each other, then they can basically say what they want when they want until your fed up with it. Although they would have a problem dismissing you (without notice) without at least written complaints.

Unfortunately its common for companies to do this type of thing when they are trying to get rid of you and not honour the notice period.

However its not difficult to stop, just take charge again.